


Temptation

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Magic, F/M, Gen, Magic, Nightmares, Snakes, Temptation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7985209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In her dreams, Hermione is tempted by offers of power and immortality...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Temptation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovepeaceohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovepeaceohana/gifts).



> DISCLAIMER: I am not making money from this story and do not own the characters.
> 
> Many thanks to my beta who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Dark Lord may have been dead, but the dreadful magic within him was not. Years after the war had ended, the dreams began for Hermione.

She had no idea where they were coming from, but every one of them seemed frighteningly real.

Snakes were speaking to her, as they had once spoken to Harry. And it was not of pleasant things they spoke. Eyes glowing with malevolence, they told her of the book that not even Voldemort had been able to unlock the secret of, the book that could bring her power beyond her wildest dreams. It would be the kind of magical skill that would make her the greatest witch ever known; she would become a Dark Lady who would rule the wizarding world and achieve immortality in more than name.

Hermione knew the book both by sight and by scent – it had a distinctive smell all its own, a vaguely beckoning aroma of ancient pages, fragrant herbs picked by moonlight in walled gardens and an unspeakable mystery. Its cover was heavy leather, deep black and tooled by hand, adorned with fine gold paint that had not flaked with age and mystic symbols that had made a fellow student gasp in horror when Hermione had inadvertently picked up the thick volume out of sheer curiosity at the Hogwarts library many years ago.

“What is that book doing here – it belongs in the Restricted Section!” Madam Pince had shrieked, swooping down on Hermione like a furious crow and plucking it swiftly from her hands.

The librarian’s reaction, and the stares of her classmates, had made Hermione blush slightly with embarrassment and guilt at the time, but she had not thought about the incident or the book for a very long time. But now the fearful tome was haunting her, and in her dreams she ached to turn those pages, to read what was written upon them and absorb those contents with all of her mind and soul.

She woke up in a cold sweat every night, sometimes shaking so badly that Ron would sit up, yawning and bleary-eyed, beside her and ask her what was wrong. Trying to keep her voice steady, she would tell him that it was only a nightmare and to go back to sleep. The last thing she wanted to do was to worry him or the children.

During the day, she went about her business, able to absorb herself in everyday tasks in her usual practical and sensible way, putting the horrors slumber brought to her out of her mind. No snakes ever talked to her in the waking world, and she could even see images of them without shuddering. But the dreams would inevitably return, each one more vivid than the last.

Serpents coiled and hissed, in shades of green and silver, ebony and bronze. Calling her name, and whispering of spells that could destroy her enemies and lay the might and wealth of empires at her feet. All she had to do, they said, was find the book, and all of this splendour and glory would belong to her.

 _Never_ , she told herself firmly, every time her eyes flew open after one of these nightmares, and resolved that she would seek help from St Mungo’s for the disturbance in her mind.

Yet something made Hermione delay taking this action, a fascination she could not even begin to fathom. Was some sinister, hidden part of her tempted by the promise of complete power over life and death, perhaps? 

It was a question that she, with all her natural courage, still feared to answer.


End file.
